My commentary on Shroud of Turin related matters. I am an Australian evangelical Christian in my 70s. I am persuaded by the evidence that the Shroud of Turin is the burial sheet of Jesus Christ and bears His crucified and resurrected image.

Monday, December 8, 2014

My theory that the radiocarbon dating laboratories were duped by a computer hacker #10: Summary (2)

2. THE PROBABILITY THAT THE SHROUD BEING 1ST CENTURY HAS A RADIOCARBON DATE OF 1260-1390 IS "ASTRONOMICAL."[#1] At the press conference in the British Museum on 13 October 1988 in which the Museum's Dr Michael Tite, and Oxford's Prof. Edward Hall (1924–2001) and Dr Robert Hedges announced that the Shroud had been radiocarbon dated "1260-1390!" (part #10(1)), they collectively insisted that the odds against the Shroud being first century, yet having a radiocarbon date of 1325 ±65 (or 1260-1390), was "astronomical" (my emphasis)[2]. This was confirmed by Prof. Harry Gove (1922-2009), the unofficial leader of the Shroud radiocarbon dating project[3], who pointed out that the statistical probability of the Shroud having a radiocarbon date between 1260 and 1390, yet it's actual date being first century, is "about one in a thousand trillion" (my emphasis)[4]. That is the equivalent of finding by chance,

[Right: Part of Victoria, Australia's Ninety Mile Beach: Holidayz.com.au. Ninety miles is 145 kms. Best of luck finding at the first try a particular grain of sand, 1 mm in diameter, on the surface of a strip of beach ~5.4 metres wide by 145 kilometres long[5], because that is the equivalent of the radiocarbon date of the Shroud being 1260-1390 = 1325 ±65, given that the Shroud is first century!]

at the first attempt, a particular grain of sand, 1 mm in diameter[6] among a thousand trillion (1,000,000,000,000 = 1012) similar grains of sand, on the surface of a strip of beach ~5.4 metres wide by 145 kilometres long, which is about the length of the Ninety Mile (145 kms) Beach in Victoria, Australia (above). Therefore the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud as, "mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390"[7], has effectively no chance of being correct, given that the Shroud is authentic (part #10(1)), and therefore first century. Indeed, Prof. Hall stated it was "totally impossible" (his emphasis) that the Shroud could have a radiocarbon date of 1260-1390, yet its actual date was "AD 100" or less[8].

Conventional explanations of the discrepancy all fail. [#1] Attempts by Shroud pro-authenticists to explain by conventional means the discrepancy between the Shroud being 1st century, yet its radiocarbon date is 1260-1390, or 1325 ±65 years, all fail.

• Carbon contamination. All carbon contamination explanations for why the first century Shroud has a 1325 ±65 radiocarbon date fail because "79% of the shroud [sic] would have been composed of such carbon contamination," but this "is preposterous, as anyone viewing the shroud samples before they were cleaned can attest"[9]. In fact Arizona laboratory still has part of its Shroud sample as it came from Turin, uncleaned and undated, and it has "no evidence for either coatings or dyes, and only minor contaminants"[10](see below).

[Left (click to enlarge): Photomicrograph by pro-authenticist Barrie Schwortz in 2012 of Arizona laboratory's remaining undated part of its Shroud sample, as it came cut from the Shroud, with no pretreatment[11].

• Invisible reweaving repair with 16th century cotton. Similarly, Benford and Marino's invisible reweaving repair theory requires that the repair be "approximately 60 percent of the C-14 sample consisting of 16th Century threads while approximately 40 percent were 1st Century in origin"[12] Oxford laboratory did find some old cotton threads in their sample, but they were only "two or three fibres"[13]. Prof. Hall estimated that it would require "65 per cent of the mass of the shroud ... to give a date of 1350 to a fabric originally dating from the time of Christ" but there was "less than 0.1 per cent" of such contamination in the Shroud (my emphasis)[14]. Benford and Marino claimed that the green colour of the Shroud sample area in the "Blue Quad Mosaic" photograph supported their theory that the sample area was 60% 16th century cotton[15]. But as can be seen, the wrinkles

in the Shroud near the radiocarbon dating sample area are the same green colour. And as Benford and Marino admitted, "it is possible that the Quad Mosaic's chemical-color signature ... may represent carbon" (my emphasis)[17]. But "carbon" includes all contamination with younger carbon, not only cotton threads. And since the wrinkles in the Shroud in the sample area are the same green colour, it is likely that both are the result of ordinary contamination by carbon-containing grime, sweat, oils, etc. Particularly since this corner is one of the most contaminated parts of the Shroud, it being one of the corners from which the cloth was held by "hundreds of sweaty hands" at Shroud expositions down through the centuries (part #10(1))[18]. Benford and Marino concluded with another frank admission that, "it is impossible to quantify the amount of surface carbon, other contaminates, and/or intruded newer material in the radiocarbon sampling area based upon the Quad Mosaic" (my emphasis)[19]. Moreover, textile expert Mechthild Flury-Lemberg inspected the Shroud as part of its 2002 restoration[20] and she denies there is any evidence of reweaving[21].

• Neutron flux at Jesus' resurrection created new carbon 14. The neutron flux argument was proposed by Harvard University physicist Thomas J Phillips in the same issue of Nature which carried the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud paper[22]. Phillips pointed out that "If the shroud of Turin is in fact the burial cloth of Christ" then the resurrection of Jesus' dead body "may also have radiated neutrons" which could "have converted enough 13C to 14C to give an apparent carbon-dated age of 670 years"[23]. In his reply in the same issue, Oxford's Dr. Robert Hedges conceded that a neutron flux could also have generated even more carbon 14 from nitrogen (14N)[24]. But Hedges also made the

[Left (click to enlarge): How neutrons from cosmic ray collisions in the upper atmosphere are absorbed by nitrogen-14 (ordinary nitrogen) converting it into carbon-14 (a radioactive isotope of carbon-12)[25].]

point that it would be "an amazing coincidence that the neutron dose should be so exactly appropriate to give the most likely date on historical grounds" and that it "implies that the dose has been `fine-tuned' to better than one part in a hundred million" (my emphasis)[26] . Gove echoed Hedges' points and added his own "most devastating argument against Phillips' idea [which] was the fact that the samples were taken at just the right spot on the shroud [sic] to produce its historic date. A sample taken closer to the image would have produced an even more modern date-even a date into the future!" (my emphasis) [27]. This is the major flaw in the neutron flux argument: for it to convert the date of the first-century Shroud to not just any date, but to 1260-1390, or 1325 ±65, which `just happens' to be 25-30 years before the Shroud first appeared in undisputed history in Lirey, France, in the c. 1355[28] would be a miracle. And a deceptive miracle by God at that!

Fraud is the only plausible explanation [#2] Given that: 1) the evidence is overwhelming that the Shroud is authentic (part #10(1)); 2) the probability that the Shroud being first century, yet had a radiocarbon date of 1260-1390, or 1325 ±65, is "astronomical", "about one in a thousand trillion"; and 3) conventional explanations of the discrepancy of how the first century Shroud can have a 13th/14th century radiocarbon date all fail; some kind of fraud is the only plausible explanation. This is just the flip-side of the laboratories'

[Right: Newspaper photo with the headline, "Turin Shroud shown to be a fake," in The Independent, London, 14 October 1988[29]. The photo is of (from left) Prof. Hall, Dr. Tite and Dr Hedges, in front of the British Museum, London, after their announcement that the Shroud's radiocarbon date was "1260-1390!"]

assumption that the Shroud must be a fake because the odds against the Shroud being both authentic and radiocarbon dating to 1325 ±65 are effectively impossible. As Oxford's Prof. Hall simply assumed without any evidence: "There was a multi-million-pound business in making forgeries during the fourteenth century. Someone just got a bit of linen, faked it up and flogged it"[30]. Great improbability alone is sufficient to establish in courts of law that scientific fraud involving plagiarism has occurred[#2]. But since the Shroud is authentic (as the evidence overwhelmingly indicates), then it must be the radiocarbon date of 1260-1390 which was a fake, the result of scientific fraud! The question then is: "what kind of scientific fraud was it?

Accusations of conventional fraud (sample-switching) fail. Following the 16 February 1989 publication of the radiocarbon-dating laboratories' report in the scientific journal Nature which claimed to be "conclusive evidence that the linen of the shroud of Turin is mediaeval"[31], some Shroud pro-authenticists saw clearly that since the Shroud is authentic, then "it was the radiocarbon dating, not the Shroud, that must be the fraud"[32]. The foremost spokesman of this viewpoint was the French priest Brother Bruno Bonnet-Eymard, of the ultra-conservative "Catholic Counter-Reformation in the Twentieth [now 21st] Century"[33]. The target of Bonnet-Eymard's attack was the seemingly strange fact that although the taking

of samples from the Shroud on the 21st April 1988 was videotaped, the placing of the samples into their coded canisters was not[35]. To preserve the pretense of blind testing (the Shroud's distinctive weave was easily recognisable by the laboratories), Dr. Tite and the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Ballestrero, took the samples into a private area, out of view of the witnesses and the camera, and put the samples into numbered cannisters which were then brought out and presented to the representatives of the three laboratories[36]. Bonnet-Eymard seized on this as evidence that Dr Tite had switched the samples, so that those which the laboratories thought were from the Shroud were actually from a medieval control sample, while those from a control sample of first-century date was in fact from the Shroud[37]. Even some leading Shroud scholars, including Prof. Werner Bulst, argued for a variant of this sample-switching fraud explanation[38]. But Ian Wilson personally knew Tite and most of the other the radiocarbon dating project leaders and he dismissed as "absurd and far-fetched as it is unworthy" accusations that "one or more of these men may have `rigged' the radiocarbon dating" by switching samples[39]. It is also highly unlikely that leaders of the radiocarbon dating project like Dr. Tite would commit major scientific fraud by switching control and Shroud samples, since they would have too much to lose if the fraud was discovered[40], as it would have been because of the Shroud's distinctive weave[41]. Besides, if they thought the Shroud was a medieval fake[42] why would they switch samples to ensure the Shroud's radiocarbon date was medieval?

Nevertheless, agnostic pro-authenticist art historian Thomas de Wesselow considers fraud in the Shroud's radiocarbon dating to be a real possibility (albeit by conventional sample-swapping), because of the "1325 ± 65 years" date:

"The third possibility is that a fraud was perpetrated, that genuine Shroud samples were deliberately swapped with cloth of a later date ... Most sindonologists regard these fraud theories as plainly incredible. Some, like Ian Wilson, refuse to contemplate such `unworthy' accusations. However, scientific fraud is by no means unknown, as the editors of science journals are well aware. ... One important consideration weighs in favour of the possibility of deception. If the carbon-dating error was accidental, then it is a remarkable coincidence that the result tallies so well with the date always claimed by sceptics as the Shroud's historical debut. But if fraud was involved, then it wouldn't be a coincidence at all. Had anyone wished to discredit the Shroud, '1325 ± 65 years' is precisely the sort of date they would have looked to achieve" (my emphasis)[43].

Those like Bonnet-Eymard who claimed that there had been fraud in the radiocarbon dating had correctly reasoned that that since the Shroud is authentic, there had to have been fraud for the first century Shroud to `just happen' to date to shortly before 1355, when Bishop Pierre d'Arcis had claimed in 1389 that the Shroud had been painted 34 years before[44] and it was later confirmed that the first appearance of the Shroud in undisputed history was at Lirey, France in 1355 (see above). But as we shall see, they were all incorrect in their assumption that the fraud had to be by conventional sample-switching[45].

No one seems to have considered that there is another type of fraud that the fully computerised AMS radiocarbon dating process[46] was vulnerable to, and which was rife in the 1980s, namely computer hacking!

3 comments:

DH
said...

Besides, if they thought the Shroud was a medieval fake[42] why would they switch samples to ensure the Shroud's radiocarbon date was medieval?

Precisely because they thought it was NOT medieval, but from the time of Jesus, that they may have wanted to do the fraud. Bonnet-Aymard hypothesis makes sense. And the fact that there is a mismatch in the reported weights and sizes of the samples provides support to his accusation.

>>Besides, if they thought the Shroud was a medieval fake[42] why would they switch samples to ensure the Shroud's radiocarbon date was medieval?

You have omitted the other reasons why the radiocarbon dating laboratories would not have switched the Shroud sample with a medieval control sample:

1. "But Ian Wilson personally knew Tite and most of the other the radiocarbon dating project leaders and he dismissed as "absurd and far-fetched as it is unworthy" accusations that "one or more of these men may have `rigged' the radiocarbon dating" by switching samples[39].

2. "It is also highly unlikely that leaders of the radiocarbon dating project like Dr. Tite would commit major scientific fraud by switching control and Shroud samples, since they would have too much to lose if the fraud was discovered[40],"

3. "as it would have been because of the Shroud's distinctive weave[41]."

>Precisely because they thought it was NOT medieval, but from the time of Jesus,

There is NO evidence that these mostly non-Christian atheist/agnostics laboratory leaders and their staff "thought it [the Shroud] was NOT medieval, but from the time of Jesus,"

>that they may have wanted to do the fraud.

Even if they HAD "wanted to do the fraud" (and there is no evidence that they did) the fact that the fraud would have been "discovered ... because of the Shroud's distinctive weave" rules out fraud by sample switching.

>Bonnet-Aymard hypothesis makes sense.

It indeed "makes sense" that there HAD to have been fraud in the 1st century Shroud (according to the OVERWHELMING weight of the evidence) having a 13th/14th century radiocarbon date, when the probability of that was "astronomical" (Tite, Hall Hedges); "about one in a thousand trillion" (Gove) and indeed "totally impossible" (Hall).

But where those who pointed that out went wrong is that they considered only ONE form of fraud, sample-switching, which is highly implausible; and did not consider a much more likely form of fraud for the FULLY COMPUTERISED process of AMS radiocarbon dating, namely COMPUTER HACKING.

Even though Gove's book was not available until 1996, which stated that the AMS radiocarbon dating process was FULLY COMPUTERISED:

"The first sample run was OX1. Then followed one of the controls. Each run consisted of a 10 second measurement of the carbon-13 current and a 50 second measurement of the carbon-14 counts. This is repeated nine more times and an average carbon-14/carbon-13 ratio calculated. ALL THIS WAS UNDER COMPUTER CONTROL and the CALCULATIONS PRODUCED BY THE COMPUTER were displayed on a cathode ray screen." (Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?," p.264. My emphasis);

Sox's book stated it in 1988:

"The CALCULATIONS WERE PRODUCED ON THE COMPUTER, and DISPLAYED ON THE SCREEN. Even the dendrochronological correction was immediately available. All eyes were on the screen. The date would be when the flax used for the linen relic was harvested." (Sox, H.D., 1988, "The Shroud Unmasked," p.147).

So there really was NO EXCUSE for those who correctly realised that there HAD to have been fraud in the 1st century Shroud having a 13th/14th century radiocarbon date, not considering computer hacking as another form of fraud.

Although they mean well, like police investigators who focus only on the wrong suspect in a crime, and ignore other suspects, one of whom actually did the crime, those who claim the fraud was sample switching are unwittingly protecting the actual perpetrator, a computer hacker (allegedly Timothy W. Linick).

>And the fact that there is a mismatch in the reported weights and sizes of the samples provides support to his accusation

The photograph of the various Shroud radiocarbon dating samples in Wilson's 2010 book, "The Shroud," which is online, shows that there is no "mismatch in the reported ... sizes of the samples." So any "mismatch in the reported weights ... of the samples" is readily explained by human error.

Stephen E. Jones----------------------------------MY POLICIES Comments are moderated. Those I consider off-topic, offensive or sub-standard will not appear. Except that comments under my latest post can be on any Shroud-related topic without being off-topic. I normally allow only one comment per individual under each one of my posts.

My policies

Comments are moderated. Those I consider off-topic, offensive or sub-standard will not appear. Except that comments under my latest post can be on any Shroud-related topic without being off-topic. I reserve the right to respond to any comment as a separate blog post.

Debates After over a decade (1994-2005) debating creation/ evolution/ design on Internet discussion groups, I concluded that Internet debates were largely a waste of time, so I ceased debating and started blogging. Therefore I normally allow only one comment per individual under each one of my posts.

Private messages I receive on Shroud of Turin related topics, I reserve the right to respond publicly via this blog, quoting the message or email, minus the senders' personal identifying information, unless that is self-evident.